TWENTY-FIRST ANNUAL MEETING. 69 



•exceedingly good; have received the highest price for it. I better like the 

 quality of some other peaches; and it is not uniform in size, having a 

 tendency to sniallness and growing double. It has been called May 

 Beauty, Flater's St. John, and Fleitas St. John. Elberta is light yellow 

 in color, more oval than Crawford, and hardiest, in southern Illinois, of 

 any yellow peach. It ripens with Late Crawford. 



Mr. W. F. Bird of Ann Arbor: Can any one tell about the peaches, 

 Excelsior and Hine's Surprise? 



Mr. W. A. Taylor: There are two peaches that have been called 

 Excelsior. One was fruited by Mr. S. D. Willard of Geneva, N. Y., and 

 is now called Hine's Surprise. One was sent to the department from 

 Massachusetts, and is now called Crosby. This ripens just ahead of Late 

 Crawford, is of medium size and shaped like the Barnard, but of lighter 

 color and striped, J. H. Hale is introducing it. It is hardy. 



Prof. Taft: I knew the Excelsior at Amherst. It was liked there for 

 its hardiness. 



Following the discussion the secretary read the paper, by Wm. Stahl 

 of Quincy, 111., upon 



SPRAYING FRUITS, WHY, HOW, AND WHEN TO DO IT. 



My interest in spraying dates back to 1883. Then, as now, I was 

 •extensively engaged in buying and shipping as well as growing fruits. In 

 that year I found it all but impossible to get grapes free from black rot, 

 in the localities from which I had been shipping. About Quincy, for 

 example, the crop was practically ruined by rot. That year I shipped 

 grapes into Quincy from other localities. 



For fifty years, Nauvoo, Ills., has been the center of a great grape- 

 growing industry. Black rot appeared there in the sixties and some years 

 had rendered the crop worthless. In 1883, I found the grapes in the vine- 

 yards on the bluffs and the uplands about Nauvoo, unmarketable by rea- 

 son of rot, but on the narrow strip of sandy land between the bluffs and 

 the river, I found grapes very neatly free from rot. For those grapes I 

 got as high as two dollars per basket in the St. Paul and Minneapolis 

 markets. They were so profitable to both the producer and the shipper 

 that I could not escape the conviction that a remedy for black rot would 

 be of almost incalculable benefit to the vineyardists of the country. I 

 began experimenting, and my experiments included spraying with about 

 everything I saw recommended, and with several mixtures original with 

 me. None, however, gave valuable results. It is remarkable how little 

 was known about spraying, how few appreciated its capabilities, and how 

 rude were the available appliances, only eight years ago. 



I first used the Bordeaux mixture in 1888, on a very small experimental 

 scale. The results clearly justified continued and more extensive experi- 

 mentation. In 1889 I sprayed with the Bordeaux mixture quite exten- 

 sively, and the results showed to my own satisfaction that I had at last 

 found the remedy for black rot. Those results also convinced others of 

 the same fact. Hence, in 1890, I sprayed all my vineyards, and quite a 



